Inside The Bills

One of the most attractive qualities of E.J. Manuel is how naturally leadership comes to him. For Bills head coach Doug Marrone and Buffalo’s scouting department it was pretty evident to them.

“One of the things you see when he walks into a room is just his presence and he’s had great leadership ability at Florida State amongst his teammates,” said Marrone. “I think that one of the important things when he comes in here is learning the trust of our players. He’ll come in here and he’ll compete for the quarterback position and he has a lot in front of him. It’ll be a situation where he’ll have to earn the trust of the players on this team already and he’ll obviously have to learn the system.”

Manuel said leadership was something that was encouraged with him by his father.

“I think my dad has always brought me up to be a leader, as far as the decisions you make in life and doing the right thing when nobody else is watching,” Manuel said. “I think that’s the best sign of a leader. Going in, I’m going to earn the respect of my teammates and I think the best way to do that is to work hard, not say a whole lot, but just try to learn as much as possible.”